Peru seeks to extradite Fujimori

Over a year after former President Alberto Fujimori arrived in Chile, hoping to become a presidential candidate, the government of Peru is about to file an extradition request to bring him to justice. Special prosecutor Carlos Briceño will present new evidence that Fujimori was directly involved with human rights abuses, and embezzlement. See CNN.com. The reasons for the lengthy delay since the original formal extradition request was made in January 2006 is rather puzzling. I suspect it may reflect the desire of the government of Alan Garcia to go out of its way to avoid any appearance of political influence in the judicial process. After Fujimori's "autocoup" in April 1992, Garcia (who had recently left the presidency) was accused of corruption and pursued by police, and he was lucky to escape from the country. Fujimori was married to a wealthy Japanese woman while still under house arrest last April, and was granted conditional freedom in May. Fujimori was often called "Chinochet," referring to his Asian heritage and his emulation of the authoritarian methods of Chilean dictator Pinochet, who recently died. I have often compared Fujimori to Richard Nixon, since both presidents used underhanded means to push through controversial policy measures, sometimes reversing pledges they had made while on the campaign trail. In many countries of Latin America, newly inaugurated presidents have a nasty habit of persecuting their predecessors on corruption charges, which often are partly valid. Eventually, the persecutors become the persecutees. Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica are some of the leading examples.

Category archives:
(all years)

This (or that) year's blog highlights

Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.

Explanation

The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made: